Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adobe]

Wondering if any of you can offer some advice for one third grade middle school class.

Whether it is a game to reinforce a particluar topic or just a boring teacher centered class they either mess around or act up(dicipline and interest in learning are missing for the majority). I don't want to just throw my hands in the air and not give beep, i want to try help them. Any advice or ideas which have worked for you?

The K teacher could just as well be a piece of the furniture for all that she does.

Adobe

[Fishead soup]

Focus of the speaking sections of the textbook.Do the substitution activities- Listen and repeat then practice in pairs. Then go to the dialogue. You and your co-teacher model dialogue. Then ask comprehension questions. Then do choral repetiton at least twice.
Then have the students practice dialogue in pairs. Later choose several pairs to do the dialogue in front of the rest of the students.

From time to time the Korean teacher will need to translate sections.

[climber159]

Ugh. The book sucks. If you don't have the kids do some sort of activity that gives them a sense of autonomy your classes will likely be chaos. I don't suggest you spend the entire time in class teaching them to be parrots. Some listening and repeating is ok (even good). Third grade middle school students seem to do well with interview-type activities, writing about them selves, and trying to stump the teacher. If you can makeup some activities along these lines that are closely related to the topics in the book your classes should run more smoothly for all. In my experience, as long as I am covering the information in the book my coteachers don't mind the methods I use. Good luck. Remember that many students just don't care, and will not care no matter how hard you try. In that case it's not your fault.

[jvalmer]

Are your students boys? girls? mixed? Personally, I find girls in all girls school the easiest to teach and much more co-operative. I've never taught in a co-ed school, but I've heard that there girls are overall the trouble makers.

[climber159]

My school is coed. I've got some good girls, some good boys, some bad girls, and some bad boys. Most of the students fall somewhere in between. One thing that will get a kid to be quiet very quickly is to make the claim that he/she is the boyfriend or girlfriend of some other kid in class (you pick the kid).

[xCustomx]

[climber159]

Only for trouble makers. This works better than the hitting some of the other teachers use. If they're not going to respect me or their classmates in class, I'll return the favor.

[Kimchieluver]

Here are some things to consider. Do you give any positive reinforcements for good behavior? I throw a student a piece of candy when it comes to active participation. Do you throw in an occasional game (English centered of course)? The ones who goof off either get deducted points or lose anyways because they are goofing off. Are you approachable outside the classroom? half the fun in being in a middle school and teaching that level is you can have a decent convo with them. Do you regularly compliment them when the students do a good job. ? Saying good job and excellent after each task can go a long way. Do you ever spend five minutes in class teaching them a tongue twister or something trivial, but fun? This goes further than you think.

Anyways, good luck.

[Adobe]

Positive reinforcement, check.
Relative, interesting lessons, check.
Mixed groups with no gender beep, check.

The ones who want to learn, keep siting looking sorry: saying sorry adobe sorry so very sorry teacher. Some things don't change from SA public schools to Korean public schools...

No candy though, i don't believe in bribing my students(although in theory the reward system does work).

Adobe

[matthews_world]

[Fishead soup]

[LostinKSpace]

My lower level third grade class is pretty similar, it is generally because they A) lack the English skills to do some of the most basic tasks, and B) They don't like the subject. This in itself isn't unusual, I mean did you honestly love evry subject at school with a pasion when you were their age.

So, I try to give them tasks which are achievable, which are related to the material in the book but not from the book, I do have a "bribe" system in place, that is that all members of the class must bring their text book, a pen and a notebook to the class if they do that then they get a point, when the class gets eight points I will give them a pizza party, usually someone forgets something but I tell them that they can still get the point if they listen and try in class, it is working at the moment, I know it isn't ideal but it is making Friday an easier day to work!

[Smee]

Find the one or two main points or sentence patterns in that particular chapter and build a few different activities around them. Just doing the stuff in the textbook isn't enough, and the students will get bored. Design some information gap activities, where the students will have to use the patterns from the dialogues to get some information from their partner. Make worksheets that present the same patterns in slightly different ways to reinforce it and keep them interested.

I go through the dialogues at the beginning of class. They're pretty dull, and chances are they've done them with the Korean teacher. I'll listen and repeat once, do a couple of back and forths, then have them close their books and see if they can do it from memory. I'll close mine, too, and see how well we do. If we get it pretty good, we'll move on, but if they're atrocius we'll hit it again. The kids like it b/c it's clear I'm not drilling it into their heads. It takes up 5 to 10 minutes. For kicks I'll do one they studied a month or two ago to just see if they've retained the ability to respond to the dialogues.

And please, please, please don't get into the habit of giving students candy. Try and be self-respecting and don't reward them for stuff they're SUPPOSED to do. I should't have to tell you that none of the other teachers at your school are rewarding students for performing their basic functions . . . and if you start giving a little, soon students will start holding out for bigger and better presents. You can't win, and it will make you look even more like a joke.